Antivirus for home office

[David Mitchell]

I need to pick out an anti-virus program to use on at least three computers, perhaps as many as five, in my family's home office. I like the package deals on BitDefender, but I don't like reports of many false positives from it.

The performance hit incurred is also a consideration; a PC-cillin subscription came with one of the computers, and the performance of that machine was significantly improved after the subscription expired and PC-cillin was removed. Part of the problem was that we use Fast User Switching a lot, and it seems that PC-cillin had to run a separate instance for each user. Perhaps that's true of every anti-virus program, in which case it's a good thing that we'll be adding more machines soon.

In the near future we'll have three computers running XP Home. One has an AMD 2400+ CPU and 1 GB RAM, another has an AMD 2000+ and 512 MB RAM, and the third will have a CPU circa 1 GHz and 384 or 512 MB RAM (doing some parts trading). The other two computers that may be included will have at least 2 GHz CPUs and 512 MB or 1 GB RAM.

Currently AVG Free is running on one system. The other two are unprotected. I run an online scan from time to time on those. We've had at least one infection, perhaps two or three, in the past seven years. We no longer use Microsoft mail clients or browsers, and we're pretty cautious about what we open.

Recommendations, please?

[bigc73542]

for a home office it might be a good idea to look at nod32 the performance hit is very minimal andthere is a version to run in a network environment. can be seen here

bigc

[David Mitchell]

Originally Posted by bigc73542

for a home office it might be a good idea to look at nod32 the performance hit is very minimal andthere is a version to run in a network environment. can be seen here

I am aware of NOD32. Unfortunately, there is a rather confusing assortment of versions, but pricing visible for only the basic one and a five-pack (which, for some reason, doesn't seem to be the network version — and there's no renewal price listed). Is the product that much better than the website? And does anyone happen to know the pricing structure?

[bigc73542]

this might help some . And I agree the web site is a little confusing. might have to contact them for a firm pricing, but the antivirus is worth the trouble.

[ronjor]

http://www.f-prot.com/products/price..._personal.html

[David Mitchell]

Originally Posted by bigc73542

this might help some . And I agree the web site is a little confusing. might have to contact them for a firm pricing, but the antivirus is worth the trouble.

That's the "visible pricing" I mentioned. I guess I'm stubborn — if they want to obscure the prices, I don't want to bother.

[David Mitchell]

Originally Posted by ronjor

http://www.f-prot.com/products/price..._personal.html

Wow. Is it okay for a business to purchase one of those licenses?

[bigc73542]

here is the pricing for nod32 enterprise antivirus pricing
and review

[dan_maran]

You may also want to look into:
McAfee Active VirusScan SMB Edition

Licenses Price per seat
5-10 $43.00

License Type
Perpetual license with one year of PrimeSupport® Priority

[bigc73542]

Originally Posted by David Mitchell

Wow. Is it okay for a business to purchase one of those licenses?

Here is f-prot corporate pricing here

[mercurie]

Many will disagree...so after I say this I had better fly away and hide...NOD pricing to high...

It is good though.

[ronjor]

One thing people could do is get into contact with antivirus sellers. It is possible to negotiate with most of them. Not unlike buying a car.
If they won't negotiate, I move on.

[David Mitchell]

Originally Posted by bigc73542

Here is f-prot corporate pricing here

That one certainly wins on price!

[David Mitchell]

Originally Posted by likuidkewl

You may also want to look into:
McAfee Active VirusScan SMB Edition

Licenses Price per seat
5-10 $43.00

License Type
Perpetual license with one year of PrimeSupport® Priority

I tried adding that to the cart, and I noticed this: "A second year of PrimeSupport was added to your cart, note this is optional. However, purchasing this second year will give you an additional year of Product Upgrades, DAT Updates & Technical Support." It costs $17.20 per user, not bad, but I thought at first that "perpetual license" means you keep getting definition updates forever.

[dan_maran]

As did I, you can always email them and ask them. Here at work we use 8.0i with a perpetual license, and I have never not been able to update even on version 4.5. So I am assuming the information is wrong, because in my experiences with McAfee you have not had to log into a server to get updates so how are they going to deny you the dat files?? Digging a little deeper I found the link to the licensing here:
http://www.shopmcafee.com/dr/v2/ec_M...ACHE_ID=164855 (Click on the Two-Year subscription link in the bottom right)
It seems in order to be legitimate you need to purchase the plan for $17
I am sorry I misguided you on that.

Hello,

I just purchased Kaspersky Business Optimal 5 for Windows Workstations @ $113.95 (USD) for three one-year licenses. This includes the extended download service.

http://www.kaspersky.com/businessopt...pter=154321255

Regards,
Jim

[David Mitchell]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Is anyone aware of any differences in how the anti-virus programs handle Fast User Switching? Also, is it possible for any of them to sit in the tray with on-access scanning disabled most of the time, then enable it when opening, say, a newly downloaded file? It seems that might result in much better system performance.

[NAMOR]

Is anyone aware of any differences in how the anti-virus programs handles Fast User Switching? Also, is it possible for any of them to sit in the tray with on-access scanning disabled most of the time, then enable it when opening, say, a newly downloaded file? It seems that might result in much better system performance.

AFAIK NOD32 handle fast user switching quite well. You may see an error messege like "Error occured while scanning MBR sector.." if the account you are running the scan in is a "limited" account. See HERE for further details... I don't think you will notice any performance decrease running NOD's resident scanner full-time. That's the nice thing about NOD32... It isn't a good idea to shut off an AV's realtime monitor because sometimes we forget how forgetful we can be...

[David Mitchell]

Originally Posted by NAMOR

It isn't a good idea to shut off an AV's realtime monitor because sometimes we forget how forgetful we can be...

That's not what I wanted to hear.

Still haven't decided what to get. F-Prot has it on price, but the problems people have had recently make me worry about it. The positive comments about Avast have caught my attention, and the multi-user multi-year prices are good, but AV-Comparatives didn't rank it well in their last on-demand test. Then there's NOD32, KAV, and McAfee. Augh!

It apears to me that the F-Prot slow down problem is rare, but the few people that have it are making a big noise about it. It has run on a couple of old machines around here (test basis) without problems. Version 3.16a has been out for about 2 months now, I believe they would have changed it if there was a real problem as F-Prot issues new versions several times a year, rather than component upgrades. That may be something to consider in an office enviornment. Good detection rate on most AV tests. F-Prot is sparse on features. No email scannig and difficult to exclude a file if something is giving a false alarm.

NOD32 is a respectable AV. It does have a halo around it on this board because the official support forum is here. My main complaint is the interface is on the complex side. Fine for geeks, but not for a non technical user. I think they require monthly password changes for downloading updates, but this would need clarification from someone who bought it, rather than just a trial user. Tests show that it is not all that strong on zoo trojans, but I hear very few complaints.

Kaspersky will catch everything but the roaches under the sink, and they are working on that. Highly recommended.

Trend Micro has been getting a lot of good press. It is a mainstream product. Very few false alarms and no system slowdowns. A large non profit research organization around here recently switched to it from McAfee. Like NOD32, it does not test that well on zoo trojans.

[David Mitchell]

I went to look at McAfee's products again and came across VirusScan ASaP, a self-updating scanner for businesses. I can't find mention of it here. Has anyone used it?

[BlueZannetti]

Originally Posted by David Mitchell

I went to look at McAfee's products again and came across VirusScan ASaP, a self-updating scanner for businesses. I can't find mention of it here. Has anyone used it?

I don't recall it being mentioned here, although performance should track the standard McAfee product - this simply offloads local management of the product.

Like many of us, you seem a bit conflicted with the array of choices. Have you prepared a list of "must have" target attributes yet? For example:

• Must run on the following OS's: Win XP, Win95, etc.
• Minimum update frequency - ??
• Minimum system spec - ??
• Maximum per seat cost - ??
• Minimal feature set: (and list your key features)
• etc.

Some of these things won't differentiate the various options, some will. This is really the best route to obtaining pertinent advice and making a sound decision...

Blue

Originally Posted by David Mitchell

I went to look at McAfee's products again and came across VirusScan ASaP, a self-updating scanner for businesses. I can't find mention of it here. Has anyone used it?

I had it on my three XP Pro machines for about 4 days then switched to Kaspersky's Business Optimal (for Win Workstations). I found nothing particularly wrong or right with McAfee's software. It is legendary in some circles (my university runs the Enterprise 8.0 version), but I just have a more secure feeling with KAV.

How's that for subjectivity?

Good Luck and Good Hunting!

[BlueZannetti]

Originally Posted by jmschwartz

I had it on my three XP Pro machines for about 4 days then switched to Kaspersky's Business Optimal (for Win Workstations). I found nothing particularly wrong or right with McAfee's software. It is legendary in some circles (my university runs the Enterprise 8.0 version), but I just have a more secure feeling with KAV.

How's that for subjectivity?

Good Luck and Good Hunting!

Actually, I run that flavor of KAV, pricing is good with multiple seats, it is a nice package, albeit a tad resource hungry (my opinion only - reasonable folks will disagree with me here based on their experiences). Although I included objective items in the strawman list above, it is clear that subjective factors (GUI look and feel, comfort, reputation, etc.) can be of equal or greater important in some circumstances. It's all in understanding the balance each of us makes in a purchase decision - and hopefully understanding that before we submit the order.

Blue